Outside plant cabinet thermal system

Abstract

An outdoor equipment cabinet includes a housing with a first door for accessing an equipment compartment within the housing. A battery compartment is located proximate a bottom of the housing. First and second air vents are located in an upper half of the cabinet. At least one fan moves air from the first vent, down to the battery compartment and then up and out of the second vent. In some embodiments, the first door includes the second vent, and a dual wall construction leading to a heat exchanger mounted to the first door. Air passes through the dual wall construction of the first door and through the heat exchanger to regulate an air temperature within the equipment compartment, and then passes out the second vent. The first vent may be provided in a second door which also includes a dual wall construction to guide incoming air to the battery compartment.

Description

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 845,762, filed Sep. 20, 2006, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a cabinet. More particularly, the present invention relates to an outdoor cabinet for housing communications equipment, which includes a thermal regulating system to maintain an internal temperature of the cabinet within prescribed limits. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] There are many types of optical and electronic equipment that must be located in an outdoor environment. For example, telecommunication equipment, networking equipment, and cable television equipment (generally referred to as “communication equipment”) are often housed in an enclosure or cabinet located outdoors. In the communications industry, such equipment is often referred to as “outside plant equipment”. Outside plant equ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] With the cabinets of the prior art, outside air, which is drawn into the cabinet for use by the heat exchanger, is taken from a location close to the ground level. Contaminants (e.g., pollen, dust, weeds, grass clippings, seeds, crawling insects) are primarily located at or near the ground level of the cabinet. Therefore, contaminants may be pulled into the cabinet and heat exchanger. Although these contaminants do not enter the equipment chamber of the cabinet due to the separation between the outside air flow and the interior air flow within the heat exchanger, these contaminants can decrease the performance ability of the heat exchanger and lead to periodic maintenance requirements to clear the accumulated contaminants from the outside air path within the cabinet.

[0013] The Applicants have also appreciated that the radiant heating of the cabinet could be greatly improved by a system to cool one or more of the outer walls of the cabinet. The Applicants have also appreciated a need in the art for a cabinet which improves on one or more of the following attributes: (A) minimization of acoustic noise from active components within the cabinet (such as fans); (B) a more Compact overall size and increased density of electronic equipment within the housing; (C) a more streamlined outer housing shell; (D) a better directing of air flow to optimize the cooling effects within the cabinet; and (E) a fan redundancy to ensure performance in the case of a fan failure.

[0014] The Applicants have also appreciated a need for a cabinet which is simple in design, rugged, more flexible as to end uses, easy to manufacture and / or less expensive to manufacture.

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, contaminants may be pulled into the cabinet and heat exchanger.

Although these contaminants do not enter the equipment chamber of the cabinet due to the separation between the outside air flow and the interior air flow within the heat exchanger, these contaminants can decrease the performance ability of the heat exchanger and lead to periodic maintenance requirements to clear the accumulated contaminants from the outside air path within the cabinet.

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